The Story: Paul’s Model

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The race I have found myself running for more than 40 years of my life consisted of praise, pride, and pretense. I would let no opportunity go by to praise myself and the wonderful things that I had done. And in more than one way was I proud of my accomplishments: proud of what I had done, but also boastful and arrogant. And I continued to pretend that it all had meaning, and that there was not a gaping hole in my soul that all the accolades still could not fill.

How things changed when I realized that it was not by my own merit that I was able to create something, and that I did not have to do anything to earn the acceptance or love of my Heavenly Father. I now do things because God has blessed me with the talents and opportunity to do what He needs me to do. The value of my works is no longer being measured by how “successful” it looks, but by how God’s grace is working through me. I cannot create anything that does not come from God. I no longer haveto do things to be blessed; I get to do things because I am blessed.